MILLER, LLOYD & THE HELIOCENTRICS OST (Strut) lp 24.00
A while back we reviewed a collection from unsung jazz legend Lloyd Miller, called A Lifetime In Oriental Jazz, which was a huge hit around here. We had become obsessed with Miller after hearing a track from him on the amazing Spiritual Jazz compilation (the second volume of which is out now, check out the 'in stock not yet reviewed' section of this week's list!), and the collection only furthered that obsession. The songs on that comp represented a sampling of Miller's eclectic and lengthy career, the music a killer fusion of classic jazz, Indian style drones, Eastern melodies, Turkish and Persian folk music, it's heady nearly psychedelic stuff, experimental and far out, but still emotional and grounded in classic jazz. So we were super excited to discover this new record, and were under the impression that it was in fact another collection or some sort of reissue, but is actually a brand new record which finds Miller recording with a UK collective called the Heliocentrics, whose sound seems to be a sort of Sun Ra worshipping psychedelic spiritual jazz, a sound that meshes with Miller's perfectly, so much so, that even listening to this, it wasn't until we read more about the record that we realized it wasn't a collection of vintage recordings. Which definitely speaks to the performances here. A modern production is really the only thing that might mark this as modern, otherwise, Miller and the Heliocentrics unwind longform jazz epics that alternately brood and soar, rife with all manner of unlikely instrumentation, strange melodies surfacing here and there, fluttering flutes, haunting vibes, delicate piano, some incredible drumming, hints of the Eastern musics that so informed Miller's older work abound, with some of the tracks slipping into full on ragas, while others flit from darkly meditative to wild and skronky, a few tracks are redone versions of old Miller tunes, but the originals are just as good.
Some seriously beautiful modern spiritual jazz for sure. And apparently the Heliocentrics also made a record with Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke, which we're definitely gonna have to track down now!

MILLER, NIELA Songs Of Leaving (Numero Group / Numerophon) lp 14.98
Wow! This beautiful album not only introduces the world to an amazing but uber-obscure folksinger who recorded these songs in 1962, but it also manages to resolve the hazy origins of one of the most recorded tracks of the sixties. But more on that in a second. Niela Miller is one of those folks that should have been way more popular than she was, but always seemed to work behind the scenes or at best, hovered at the periphery. She saw Dylan's first professional performance, took up guitar after meeting Eric Weissberg (of "Dueling Banjos" fame), loaned Pete Seeger her guitar for a show, and refused a request by Judy Collins to record one of her songs. Her voice is ghostly and unusual; high in register, but delivered with an earthy blues-soaked urgency, as she sings these songs about the meaner sides of love and the men who did her wrong. Which is ironic in a sense because the guitar progression and theme of her song, "Baby Don't Go To Town" ( a track about a women who flirts with other men to get her lover to pay attention to her) were basically stolen from an ex-boyfriend and reinvented as "Hey Joe". Yes, that "Hey Joe"! The timeless track of love gone wrong and its murderous consequences covered by Hendrix, Love, The Leaves, Tim Rose, The Byrds and countless others. That A-major progression was essentially the first thing most novice guitar players wanted to learn in the sixties before "Stairway To Heaven" and "Smoke On The Water" came around. But Miller never got any credit for this song, because no original recordings were ever distributed, and she subsequently faded into other pursuits of teaching and counseling. While it's definitely an interesting back story, it's by far not the only reason to give this a listen. The ever-reliable Numero Group christen their new vinyl-only subsidiary Numerophon with this restored reissue, made from a transfer of a one-of-a-kind acetate Miller recorded at Variety Recording Service in 1962. The acetate was badly damaged with skips, crackles and a noticeable warp. Though it's not a perfect recording, the resulting sound lends itself to the kind of music Miller made, antiquated and other-worldly, cushioned with a bit of reverb and steeped in the beautiful strains of regret, loss and hope. Highest Recommendation!

MILLER, POLK This Old South Quartette (Tompkins Square) cd 15.98
Boy, this is a strange one. Not your standard old tyme fare, Polk Miller was a rare figure in the world of early American musical theater. Born in Virginia, and a Civil War veteran who fought for the South, he dropped a lucrative pharmaceutical and veterinarian medicine career (he created the first pet-care products for what would become Sargent) to follow his musical dream, leading a traveling all-black singing group, playing banjo and spinning song-stories about his plantation upbringing and singing songs that adopted the vernacular and celebrated the rural and musical traditions of pre-war black life. But a mixed-race group removed from the element of farce and without the use of black-face was a bold concept in the 1890's, garnering praise and derision from both Northern and Southern audiences. His highest praise came from Mark Twain, who suffered similarly divided criticisms for Huckleberry Finn. But the show and the group were very popular nonetheless lasting off and on for over 30 years, even after Miller died in 1913.
Culled from seven cylinder recordings made in 1909 and seven rare 78 rpm recordings made almost 20 years later in 1928, this disc this has some of the earliest recordings of whites and blacks playing together and some of the best examples of pre-war American gospel music. But the most interesting songs are the strange musical theater numbers such as "Laughing Song", that sounds like characters from a maniacal Disneyland ride and "Pussycat Rag" consisting of the quartette singing like, well, cats. Songs like, ah, "Watermelon Party" may cause some cringing, but let's face it, music rarely gets as unashamedly real as this!
MPEG Stream: "Laughing Song"
MPEG Stream: "Oysters and Wine at 2 AM"
MPEG Stream: "Pussycat Rag"

MILLER, RHETT The Believer (Verve) cd 15.98
Oh, Rhett Miller what're you doin' to us?! You, dear AQ reader, might recall that we had a gripe with his 2002 album's cover photo (a teen magazine worthy close-up shot of his peaches'n'cream face on a green background), and we didn't even bring up the appalling cover of his early solo offering Mythologies. Shudder. This time he's all dolled up and lounging in velvets. Doin' his best Rufus Wainwright impression. Weird, but unlike Wainwright who possesses an easy jaunty elegance, Miller looks posed and unnatural. Geeeez! Alright, that's enough harshing on Miller for one afternoon, but frankly it'd be less of an issue if any of his cover art or photos to date have suited their respective albums' music OR if his solo tunes kicked as much ass as those of his full band (Old 97s) do. Instead, his solo fare is much closer to that of loads of other folks. For instance the second tune could very well be a Goo Goo Dolls cast-off (which in itself isn't all that bad, is it?). Then the very next song "Meteor Shower" sounds like it could be a re-interpretation (or in less kind words, a knock-off) of David Bowie's song "Soul Love" from Ziggy Stardust. Later in the album "I Believe She's Lying" traces a melody and strummy guitar sound that Gin Blossoms put to better use on their song "Hey Jealousy". Not surprisingly, it all sound good -- really well played and produced -- but just comes across as faceless. That said, there's certainly enough heartstring-pulling here to guarantee that you'll be hearing some of these songs in teen movies this summer...
MPEG Stream: "Meteor Shower"
MPEG Stream: "The Believer"

MILLER, RHETT The Instigator (Elektra) cd 12.98
Solo record from the lead vocalist of alt. country rockers the Old 97's. And yet another chapter in the seemingly never ending saga of a band we love getting worse and worse. While the last Old 97's record still hinted at the band they once were, this is total middle of the road, singer songwriter, adult contemporary bland pop rock. Blechh.
RealAudio clip: "Our Love"

MILLEVOI, NICK In White Sky (The Flenser) cassette 6.98
A whole bunch of new releases this week on local label the Flenser, the weirdest of the bunch might just be this one, mostly since it's way different than anything else The Flenser has released so far. Unlike the mostly metal Flenser catalog, there's very little that's overly metal about this release from guitarist Nick Millevoi, other than plenty of buzz and distortion. Instead, we're reminded of a more droned out abstract take on the sort of minimal psychedelic guitarscapery of another aQ fave, Blackwolfgoat.
The guitar tone here is thick and crunchy, buzzy and plenty distorted, Millevoi taking riffs and looping and layering, the opener here starting out as something blown out and raga-like, before the playing grows more frenzied, and does take on a bit of a metallic vibe, but it's like Reich or Riley composing with metallic riffs, growing more and more frantic, before melting into a roiling morass of long tones and endlessly sustaining chords.
"Slowly Dark" is all overtones and sustain, a bit like SUNNO))) crossed with Derek Bailey, that sort of obtuse fretboard scrabbling, set amidst long rumbling tones and deep reverberent thrum. The two part "Super-Lith" gets even more abstract, ditching much of the heavy drone, leaving notes to drift, keening high end shards, and woozy chordal shimmer, which grows more and more intense in the second part, reminding us of an even more abstract Mick Barr, the guitar emitting gouts of grinding high end laced with bits of scrap and skronk.
The tape closes with the 14+ minute "Endless Unfolding Hallways", which might be the 'prettiest' of the bunch, mixing some dreamy lilting melody, into wild squalls of swirling psychedelic high end, and heaving near heaviness, along with long stretches of softly pulsing drones, all peppered with fragmented melody and softly atonal chords.
Cool stuff. Probably pretty limited too!!
MPEG Stream: "Before A Constant"
MPEG Stream: "Slowly Dark"

MILLIS, ROBERT 120 (Etude ) cd 13.98
BACK IN STOCK!!! One of our favorite bits of audio collage / field recording / amazing experimentation was Mr. Millis' 120 cd-r which came out late in 2008. It's now available once again, but this time as a proper compact disc!
Robert Millis is a man of many talents: a Climax Golden Twin, a collector of 78s resulting in the impeccable Victrola Favorites book & compilation, purveyor of searing avant-scum-noise-rock in AFCGT, a world traveller in search of esoterica for Sublime Frequencies, a field recordist of frogs, birds, blue jeans salesmen, etc, etc, etc. Despite his many activities, Millis' recorded output has almost entirely been by way of collaboration, making this self-released gem of a solo album all the more special. This is closer related to the collage work that Millis has contributed to the Climax Golden Twins, bridging all of those aforementioned interests in a polyglot of psychedelic drone smear pocked with snippets of conversation, poetic extracts from his collection of '78s, and a judicious amount of vinyl crackling. An album such as this would easily be confused for the hermetic revelations that Philip Jeck extracts from his rough shod vinyl and turntables; but Millis seems to counterpoint the crackle and the clean with more drama than Jeck, almost positing the crackle like a punchline in a joke that breaks through one of Millis' blissed out shimmers constructed from loops and drones from guitar, bells, and glass harmonica, where haunted melodies from times long gone whisper through the mix. But at another instance, Millis leaps geographically from a field recording of loosely played Thai temple music into a shortwave burst of noise seamlessly mixed through a cloud of insects and back into one of his sleepy drones. The logic of the album may seem absurd from afar; but the internal logic is peculiarly sensible, as if Millis were tapping into some stream of consciousness that subcutaneously connects all of these intermingling sounds. Very highly recommended no matter how you slice it.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

MILLIS, ROBERT 120 (Fire Breathing Turtle) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Robert Millis is a man of many talents: a Climax Golden Twin, a collector '78s resulting in the impeccable Victrola Favorites book & compilation, purveyor of searing avant-scum-noise-rock in AFCGT, a world traveller in search of esoterica for Sublime Frequencies, a field recordist of frogs, birds, blue jeans salesmen, etc. etc. etc. Despite his many activities, Millis' recorded output has almost entirely been by way of collaboration, making this self-released gem of a solo album all the more special. This is closer related to the collage work that Millis has contributed to the Climax Golden Twins, bridging all of those aforementioned interests in a polyglot of psychedelic drone smear pocked with snippets of conversation, poetic extracts from his collection of '78s, and a judicious amount of vinyl crackling. An album such as this would easily be confused for the hermetic revelations that Philip Jeck extracts from his rough shod vinyl and turntables; but Millis seems to counterpoint the crackle and the clean with more drama than Jeck, almost positing the crackle like a punchline in a joke that breaks through one of Millis' blissed out shimmers constructed from loops and drones from guitar, bells, and glass harmonica, where haunted melodies from times long gone whisper through the mix. But at another instance, Millis leaps geographically from a field recording of loosely played Thai temple music into a shortwave burst of noise seamlessly mixed through a cloud of insects and back into one of his sleepy drones. The logic of the album may seem absurd from afar; but the internal logic is peculiarly sensible, as if Millis were tapping into some stream of consciousness that subcutaneously connects all of these intermingling sounds. Limited to something like 50 copies, but maybe we'll be able to get more... maybe not. Very highly recommended no matter how you slice it.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

MILLIS, ROBERT Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums: Recordings From Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar (Anomalous) cd 14.98
It seems like field recordings from southeast Asia have become one of the most popular emergent genres here at Aquarius Records. And while we're not sure if just 'cause you took a trip and recorded stuff you should really get your name on record (like you're some sort of hoity-toity 'sound artist'), we still appreciate the efforts of such recordists as Loren Nerell, the Bishop brothers, and now Robert Millis. The truth is, ambient sound from some street in Thailand or Indonesia can be a lot more fascinating than yet another disc of computerized feedback or lowercase glitch! Never a substitute for going places yourself and using your ears (and other senses) but certainly a valid listening option at home. So no complaints, we'll continue to sing the praises of quality releases in the 'field recordings' genre like those on the Sublime Frequencies label. And certainly if you liked the recent Princess Nicotine disc on Sublime Freq, you'll probably also want to check out Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums. Actually Millis (a member of American experimentalists Climax Golden Twins) had some involvement in the production of the Sublime Frequencies' dvd release Nat Pwe: Burma's Carnival Of Spirit Soul, and portions of this release were recorded on the same 'expedition'. Listening to this artfully edited distillation of the hours and hours of recordings that this disc represents, you'll be able to tell that Millis obviously spent a lot of time on the ground in SE Asia, ears alert for interesting sonics (musical and otherwise). It'll transport you into an environment that includes the following and more: "improvisation performed by an elephant mahout using only a leaf, ethereal temple orchestras, blind street musicians, insect choruses, stagecoach rides, singing cabbies, drunken spirit orchestras performing Leo Sayer songs..." Byram was especially taken with the track that sounds like a guy sobbing through a bullhorn! A great listen thats very well mixed, segueing nicely, and at a nice pace, from track to track.
MPEG Stream: "Blue Jeans Salesman, Thailand / Morning Sermon, Cambodia"
MPEG Stream: "Blind Street Singer, Thailand"
MPEG Stream: "Distant Drums, Cambodia"

MILLIS, ROBERT This World Is Unreal Like A Snake In A Rope (Sublime Frequencies) dvd 21.00
Our favorite "world music" label has gotta be Sublime Frequencies, their dedicated operatives backpacking through the far reaches of the non-Western world, documenting so much amazing music and sound. While SF mostly does limited edition vinyl and cds, they also do dvd releases too, adding equally 'exotic' visuals to the mix.
Here's one such dvd, a film by Robert Millis of the Climax Golden Twins, whom you probably know also as a prolific field recordist and collector of 78s. Here he shares the sound and imagery from a journey he took, from Mumbai to Madurai and back.
"Filmed live and in the moment in South India" this is a narrative-free exploration of the wonders (to us) of what must be rather mundane (to them, there). It's fascinating, odd, dreamlike, colorful, with much beauty, and moments of humor. The film is full of woozy close-ups and cross-fades of peeling murals painted on pockmarked walls. Religious processions. Traffic-clogged streets. Beach amusements. Strange scenes on flickering TV screens. Temple performances. Laundry being done. Street musicians. Cows, elephants! It's all reality, yet unreal, a bit hallucinatory. Helped along by (of course) the evocative field recordings and Bollywood samplings that serve as the soundtrack.
One of the most mind blowing bits, for us at least, was the visit to the Experimental Instrument Museum in Chennai, revealing such treasures as the "revolving tambura". Wow. Makes Lark In The Morning seem pretty lame. Want. To. Go. There.
55 minutes, indexed into chapters accessible from the menu screen. Also includes an equally compelling photo gallery slideshow section.

MILLS, CHRIS Nobody's Favorite (Sugar Free) cd 9.98

MILS. Echotone (Gooom) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MILS. Le Grand Pic Mou (Gooom) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MILS. s/t (Gooom) cd 15.98
Ever since we discovered M83 and their gorgeous shimmery blissed out shoegazey electronic pop, we've been desparately trying to track down more stuff on Gooom, the French label that M83 (and Cyann & Ben as well) call home. While a lot of that stuff is already out of print, we did just manage to get a few titles in enough quantity to list. This is the debut album from Mils., another Gooom mainstay. Mils. weave an exotic soundscape of soundtracky electronica/jazz, sort of like David Holmes meets DJ Shadow, with fluttering flutes, shuffling skittery percussion, subtly funky bass, occasional electronic glitchery, and weird warbly sound effects here and there. Sounds like it could be the soundtrack to some bizarre seventies soft porn / cop show or something. Propulsive and hypnotic. Just funky enough for the headz to get into, but weird and dark enough for everybody else!
MPEG Stream: "0524"
MPEG Stream: "0351"

MILTNER, KRISTIN Grains (Praemedia) cd 11.98
Kristin Miltner is one of many very talented electronic musicians from the Bay Area who has gone through Mills College with a deft understanding of Max/MSP language and how to apply that understanding to a post-techno framework of electronica. While she has collaborated in a couple of other recorded projects, Grains stands as her solo debut, and it's quite a gem of twinkling glitch-based electronica and crunchy rhythmic skitter. Fragmenting tiny snippets of her own voice and splicing it all back together with all of the digital threads exposed, Miltner builds looping melodies that hold the same languid sensibility found on those beloved Colleen records, but with the additional pixel smear patina from the likes of Tim Hecker and Fennesz. Using these melodies as the building blocks to her pop-song length pieces, Miltner stacks these sounds with increasing density and jagged drum machines, all the while maintaining the basic tune of the melody. Grains emerges as a short and sweet reprisal of the classic Autechre use of melody with plenty of technological tricks up its sleeve to keep it charming, fresh, and unique. Very nicely done.
MPEG Stream: "Grains Need Water And Sunlight"
MPEG Stream: "Stunned Light"

MILTON, ANTONY 'Sirens' & 'And Where The Coloured Planes Are Rafts (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
So here's a new record from longtime AQ fave Antony Milton, who runs the kick ass cd-r label PseudoArcana. Not a new record entirely, actually originally released on cassette, then on cd-r and now on cd (our sincerest apologies to anyone who will be buying this for the THIRD time), this time re-re-released by Last Visible Dog who now seem to be the go to guys to have your already released cd-r's released once again! But hell, most of you probably missed out the first two times around (we sure did), so here's a chance to catch up and make it right! This isn't at all like the Antony Milton we've come to adore, which in no way is a bad thing. Milton has bestowed upon us record after record of sublime drones and experimental ambience, all of it pretty darn amazing. But this is a whole 'nother side of Mr. Milton, a more lo-fi, home recorded, bedroom folk side. And quite a nice side it is. Originally Recorded in 1997 and 1998 the two records that comprise this disc are intimate folk pop songs, lots of strummed guitar, simple percussion, and Milton's quavering almost-falsetto sadboy vocals. Drifting and delicate, simple and insistent, sweetly innocent but with haunting otherworldly filigree. Certainly in the tradition of New Zealand bedroom songsmiths Alastair Galbraith, Peter Jeffries, Roy Mongomery, but with definite shades of the US four-track underground (Sentridoh, Iran, Supreme Dicks, etc.). Towards the second half of the record, the freakout factor definitely picks up, with stretches of wild guitar and slabs of almost-noise, but at it's core this is still a ultra personal, super lovely slab of folky pop lovliness!
MPEG Stream: "Pulsing"
MPEG Stream: "And Where The Colored Planes Are Rafts"

MILTON, ANTONY February 2001 (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
Pseudo Arcana head honcho starts this disc off with some real Raster-Noton style static clickery but manages to sound way more organic, with throbbing pulses of low end that abruptly cut out and become a dreamy, thrumming, humming wash of warm drones ans slowly shifting spaced-out swish and whir. The rest of the record runs the gamut from noise-y drone ala the Dead C, with bursts of harsh noise and looped samplesforming loping 'rhythms', to all out N O I S E, to dreamy subterranean dronescapes reminiscent of Birchville Cat Motel, to almost-pop buried under fuzz and hiss and distrorted to the point of being pop-no-more.
RealAudio clip: "Endocrine"
RealAudio clip: "Poster Rocket"

MILTON, ANTONY Near / Far (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Four tracks of droning dreaminess. Track one is a stuttering, wheezing violin drone over absent mindedly strummed, downtuned guitars sounding like a doped up Roy Montgomery. The second track is an industrial landscape of machinery buzz and electronic hiss while crystalline guitar feedback soars above it all. Track three is keening upper register drone ala Vibracathedral Orchestra with rhythmically struck low notes stretched into a loose framework for freak-out guitar. The final track is a murky swirl of haunting, distant minor key swells underpinning static and buzz and malfunctioning electronics. Like Nurse With Wound scoring a Fulci or Bava film. Hauntingly mesmerising but rough and abrasive at the same time.
RealAudio clip: "Window Sill"

MILTON, ANTONY Siren Performance CDR: Enjoy Gallery 17-8-2000 (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Siren Performance was devised as an installation using the sounds of air raid sirens and the various sonic harmonics and overtones that resulted from multiple / competeing sound sources. This disc contains a 15 minute recording of the source material for the installation as well as a performance featuring the air raid sirens, as well as Campbell Kneale on electronics, Antony Milton on sampler and broken violin, as well as a few other folks on bass, guitar and more electronics. The sound is stark and beautiful, mournfully wailing like ghosts and wind, slowly pitched up and down. The performance takes those sounds and turns them into a thick drone-y wash of sirens and vigorously bowed stringed instruments which takes the piece into Conrad / Cale / Maclise / Palestine territory.
RealAudio clip: "Siren Performance"

MILTON, ANTONY The End Of This Short Road (Deserted Village) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another unearthed jem from our perrenially messy back room, a few copies of this gorgeous gem just surfaced, if you missed out last time, now you've got another chance...
Antony Milton is one busy man, not only does he run the amazing PseudoArcana label, but he also makes tons of music as A.M., Mrtyu, in the Stumps, the Nether Dawn and more. Did we also mention he's a postman?
The End Of This Short Road is the latest from this underground dynamo, and is most definitely the most song oriented. We know full well Milton is capable of weaving gorgeous expanses of droney bliss, as well as monstrous slabs of downtuned brutality, but who knew he had such a deft hand at delicate songsmithery, but he does, and pretty much every track on The End Of This Short Road is a gem. Fear not, the weird lo-fi warbles and buzzy drone drenched whirs are still present and accounted for, but they tend to be beneath bits of jangle and croon, instead of on their own (although that does happen here and there).
The quieter pretty songs sound a bit like a more lo-fi Sparklehorse, with a little Alastair Galbraith mixed in and maybe with Roy Montgomery on guitar. Soft whispery vocals over delicate melodies, all filtered through that distinctly NZ filter. While the more rocking songs, are super psychedelic, with aggressive strumming, lost of reverb and delay, intense little squalls of minor key jangle and crunch, that manage to be both noisy and pretty, intense but strangely sad and wistful. Recommended for soft hearted noisies and noisy hearted folkies...
MPEG Stream: "Day Of The World"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of This Short Road"
MPEG Stream: "Hops"

MIMAROGLU, ILHAN Agitation (Locust) cd 14.98

MIMEO / JOHN TILBURY The Hands of Caravaggio (Erstwhile) cd 14.98
MIMEO stands for Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra, a massive ensemble of European electronic musicians and improvisers that includes Keith Rowe, Phil Durrant, Kaffe Matthews, Jerome Noetinger, Gert-Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler, Thomas Lehn, Marcus Schmickler, Markus Wettstein, Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, and Rafael Toral. Masterminded by Rowe who has worked for over 30 years in the seminal UK improv group AMM, MIMEO has been joined by fellow AMM member John Tilbury on piano. While there are plenty of interesting sounds that all of these artists have made on this album, "The Hands Of Caravaggio" lacks focus as a result of there being way too many cooks in the kitchen.
RealAudio clip: "Hands of Caravaggio 4"

MIMIC AND THE MODEL VOLUME 1 (Mimic and the Model) 12" 5.98
The first in a new series of minimalist electronica following the tropes of the Basic Channel aesthetic with minimal information, exquisite skeletal bleeps & blips that fade in and out of structural sequencing, and a high degree of anonymity (though we will tell you this is S.F. electronica wizard Kit Clayton). Very nice!

MIMINOKOTO 3 (Siwa) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Along with LSD-march's Shindara Jigoku, here's another slab of vinyl on Siwa from another excellent underground Japanese psych unit. Tokyo's Miminokoto (who, like LSD-march, have also released a cd on the Last Visible Dog label) present their appropriately titled third studio recording as a limited, vinyl-only edition boasting a nice hand-screened cover. Collectors will want this, but also anyone into garagey guitar psych... And we weren't aware of this before, but Miminokoto is somewhat of a Tokyo psych veteran supergroup, with a line-up that includes: Masami Kawaguchi (Broomdusters, LSD-march, Aihiyo), Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and Takuya Nishimura (Che-Shizu)!

MIMINOKOTO Green Mansions (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
MPEG Stream: "Echo"
MPEG Stream: "When"

MIMINOKOTO Hitoyogiri (Important) cd 14.98
REPRESSED. With the correct music on it this time. If you got a copy before, take a look at the disc. If the background art on the disc is white, it's ok. If it's silver, then you have a disc with the wrong Miminokoto tracks on it (from a live album released in Japan recently). Whoops. If you got one of those from us, let us know and we'll get Important to send you a replacement.
The last time we heard from Tokyo underground psych-meisters Miminokoto, with their 2009 PSF release All About Mimi, they were calling themselves New Miminokoto. On account of how they'd replaced longtime lead singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi with Suzuki Junzo (ex-Overhang Party). Well, that's not news any more, so now they're back to calling themselves just plain Miminokoto. Suzuki Junzo is still capably fronting the group, wearing shades (we presume) and wranging his guitar through the usual distortodelic psych storms and melancholically poppy ramshackle jangle we expect from these exemplars of the hazy, heavy lidded, late-night "Tokyo Flashback" sound. Singing in Japanese, his voice is hushed and weary, the music often likewise, though they rev up for some of those feedback filled, Rallizes style blowouts we love at times too. On All About Mimi, the band covered a couple songs by the late Jutok Kaneko (Kousokuya), here they do another one, along with six others of their own, equally emotive and wrecked composition.
The label that put this disc out calls their style "decadent death doom" and while that might be a bit misleading to those of you who think you already know what "death doom" sounds like ('cause this definitely ain't metal, though it may be decadent), that description definitely captures the downer vibe. For sure they've got the blues, though this also isn't "blues" as commonly known, either. What it is, is a sad and gorgeous session of shimmering amp bliss, burbling bass, slow shuffling drums, aching vocals, creaky chords, and minor key melody.
Fans of prior Miminokoto output (new and old) as well as other Tokyo flashbackers like LSD-March, Up-Tight, Suishou No Fune, Kawaguchi New Rock Syndicate, Overhang Party etc. etc. should definitely dig!!

MIMINOKOTO Live (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
Last Visible Dog brings us the first US release for this Tokyo-based trio, a self-described 'romantic psychedelic band'. Recorded live at Tokyo's Penguin House back in January of this year, this disc starts off with a raucous tangle-jangle of bright garagey guitars ("Tottemo"), followed by a melancholic pop dirge that then erupts into sky-scraping psych guitar overload ("Subeteha"). The rest of the set follows a similar pattern, juxtaposing the quiet and folky with the loud and shrill. You'll get a song that features mopey Japanese vocals over jazzily listless instrumental backing, that'll be followed by piece built around some severe, noisy guitar rockin' and crashing drums. Often one thing builds into the other, which is quite satisfying. Definitely a 'Tokyo Flashback' style band, for fans of Shizuka, Nagisa Ni Te, White Heaven, Kousokuya, all that sort of thing!
MPEG Stream: "Tottemo"
MPEG Stream: "Subeteha"

MIMINOKOTO Orange Garage (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
MPEG Stream: "Tokedasu"
MPEG Stream: "Dokonimon ver. 2"

MIMIR Mimyriad (Streamline) cd 14.98

MIMIR s/t (Streamline) cd 14.98

MIN BUL s/t (Universal Norway) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's one I remember reading about in one of them rare-ass record collector books and thinking, wow, I'd like to hear that. A 1970 jazz-rock improv trio from Norway, featuring the young guitarist Terje Rypdal (later an ECM staple), balanced somewhere between psych-rock and Impulse-inspired energy jazz. Well at last it's been reissued on cd (first time ever legit reish we're told) and it is indeed damn good. Rypdal makes a good claim here to being Norway's answer to Sonny Sharrock or Ray Russell, and rips it up on some soprano sax as well as electric guitar. The six tracks here range from sheer freakout implosions to calmer, groovier stuff, with bassist Bjornar Andresen's Mingus-meets-Cream composition "Champagne of Course" being a monster highlight. Definitely a jazz record more than a rock one, but quite intense and heavy and experimental and sometimes beautiful too. And it's another NWW-list entry by the way. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "I Cried A Million Tears Last Night"
MPEG Stream: "Champagne Of Course"

MIN XIAO-FEN Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night (Asphodel) cd 12.98
Traditional Chinese music played on the pipa by virtuoso Xiao-Fen, nicely recorded by AQ-customer Carl Stone. Intricate, beautiful, even DJ Spooky couldn't improve upon this.

MINAJ, NICKI Pink Friday (Cash Money Records) cd 16.98
After a year or two of track stealing cameos, on records by Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and loads of others, Nicki Minaj finally unleashes her long awaited full length, and people for the most part seem to be bummed out. Mostly because it seems she decided to go pop instead of straight hip hop. But it would definitely be a mistake to write off Pink Friday, cuz there's some seriously twisted kick ass shit here.
For those who need a history lesson, or who have been living under a rock, pretty much every hip hop jam of the last 24 months, if it was worth hearing had Minaj spitting some twisted rhymes on it. Probably most notably on the recent Kanye West record, where her cameo on "Monster" dusted even Jay-Z. She's a mini bombshell, pneumatic figure, robotic composure, and a voice that slips from sweet croon, to deep bellow, slipping in and out of accents, making sound effects, woofing like a dog, growling like a dragon, spitting expletives like a longshoreman, but what a way with rhymes, and for the most part, that's on display here big time, the bummer is that there's also plenty of pop fluff. But like we said, it's still worth it. And as far as pop stuff goes, it's pretty decent. And hell, we'd much rather see Minaj all over the radio than Katy Perry.
By now you've probably heard the Buggles sampling "Check It Out" (the video is a kick, and if you're not crushed out on Minaj after that, there's something wrong with you), with it's "oh oh" refrain, and Wil.I.Am, and yeah, we sort of dig it, but even here, Minaj's rap is twisted and fucked up and WAY weird, rhythmically off kilter, the rhymes unlikely and funny as fuck. And on "Blazin", with its classic '80s sampling loop, Kanye returns Minaj's "Monster" favor and delivers a pretty excellent guest spot of his own.
But the two best jams are tucked away right at the beginning, after the pop opening, "Roman's Revenge" is spare and stark and fierce and fucked up, the music minimal, and Minaj is on fire, mean and nasty and funny, and she's teamed up with Eminem who spits out his own serious nastiness over a weirdly creepy children's choir backdrop. A whole record of this sort of sick hip hop genius would have made Minaj a legend for sure, and all the haters would be bowing down, but a track like that would never make it on the radio. Neither would the next one "Did It On 'Em", a woozy, synth driven syzurp slither, with its "Did it on 'em, shitt'd on em" refrain, and some gleefully nasty lyrical madness, including "if I had a dick, I would pull it out and piss on 'em", all over a stripped down lo fi beat, and a hazy wheezing buzz.
But sadly, those two tracks are really the only vestiges of the mixtape Minaj everyone wanted more of. That Minaj does pop up here and there throughout the rest of the record, but only occasionally and briefly. So if you have a low tolerance for radio pop, then Pink Friday might be tough going, and you'd probably be better off tracking down those infamous mixtapes, but if you don't mind a little pop, you could definitely do worse, and you get the occasional blast of bafflingly brilliant Minaj, which to us, seems well worth it.
MPEG Stream: "Roman's Revenge"
MPEG Stream: "Did It On 'Em"
MPEG Stream: "Check It Out"

MINCEDANMEATFRIELORTENSPEED Staring Contest / Trip Commander (Ormolycka) 7" 6.98
So far, the only thing we've reviewed on the awesome Ormolycka label, run by aQ pal Jason, was the cassette version of Liturgy's Renihilation, the one that featured a bad ass Liturgy jungle remix courtesy of our very own Andee. But we do carry everything else on the label, we just get such limited copies, they never make it onto the list, tapes by Pistol Disko, Anthro Rex, Synt.Tofs, Shams, M Ax Noi Mach, Modern Witch, Dubknowdub, GDFX, Pushups, Diamond Black Hearted Boy, A Magic Whistle, Juiceboxx, Frak, Narwhalz, Death Grips, Pictureplane, Kalambya Sisters and more! Phew. Ormolycka has also just started doing 7"s, the first two of which we have in stock, and we've go just enough to list!
Although we've never reviewed anything by Mincemeat Or Tenspeed, some aQ folks have been fans for a while, in fact he played a while back at a secret brunch show in a cave right by the water. We have no idea who Dan Friel is [2013 edit: now we do, and he's got a great record called Total Folklore coming out on Thrill Jockey in February], but this is some sort of collaboration, hence the tongue twisty moniker.
Not sure what we were expecting but it sure wasn't this, the A side starts out all awesomely gristly rhythmic buzz, wrapped in distorted keening melodies, sounding a bit like Amps For Christ or Bastard Noise, all sorts of warped squiggles, and stuttery glitched out rhythms, surprisingly melodic, almost poppy in its own way, like some fractured blast of rhythmic soft noise bliss out.
And if the A side is -almost- poppy, then the B side is full on pop, sounding a bit like some super catchy chunk of indie rock, rendered in glitched out analog buzz, a looped sort of hooky lo-fi electro that is just about the catchiest shit we've heard in ages. Awesome.
Limited too, and pressed on swank milky blue vinyl!

MIND CONTROL s/t (Sonic Tyranny) cd 14.98
Gorgeous disc of strangely melodic, creepy black ambience, four long tracks that shimmer, chrip, creep, rumble and drift...

MIND OVER MIRRORS The Voice Rolling (Digitalis) lp 19.98

MIND SPIDERS Meltdown (Dirt Nap) cd 13.98
When we first listened to Meltdown, we found ourselves crazy obsessed with the title track, a killer slab of synth heavy drum machine driven cold wave electro, with cool squiggly Perrey And Kingsley like analog melodies over the top, the sound raw and urgent, a bit frenetic, dizzying and psychedelic and a little bit noisy too, but also atmospheric and cinematic, definitely reminding us a little of the current crop of retro-futurist synthscapers. The rest of the record, at first blush, could hardly compare, sounding more like a straight ahead garage rock. But a strange thing happened - the more we listened, it was like all the sci-fi synthy weirdness and electro-noisiness of that title track seeped into all of the others, revealing the record as something so much more, an awesomely psychedelic melange of crunchy garage punk, seventies new wave power pop, and brooding cold wave gloom pop, with some of the songs all jangly and fuzzy and garage-y, while others are more weirdly robotic and futuristic, although even the poppier jams are peppered with rad theremin like squiggly melodies and thick buzzing synths, all tangled up with super hooky classic fuzzy punky garage pop, giving them a cool retro-future-pop vibe, and making them a bit more dark and tense than your typical garage rock. Elsewhere the band craft some seriously perfect power pop, sounding like some lost Yellow Pills style B-side from the seventies, all kinetic and crunchy, big chiming jangly chords, super melodic basslines and kick ass propulsive drumming, but the strangely new wave-y vocals once again change the feel just enough to make it sound totally original (or at least as original as something so beholden to sounds past can be).
Imagine Thee Oh Sees via Gary Numan, or the Ramones if they were on Captured Tracks, or maybe even Bare Wires covering Snowy Red... this is fast becoming a new favorite.
MPEG Stream: "Meltdown"
MPEG Stream: "Skull Eyed"
MPEG Stream: "Join Us Now"
MPEG Stream: "Wait For Us"
MPEG Stream: "Beat"

MIND SPIDERS Meltdown (Dirt Nap) lp 15.98
When we first listened to Meltdown, we found ourselves crazy obsessed with the title track, a killer slab of synth heavy drum machine driven cold wave electro, with cool squiggly Perrey And Kingsley like analog melodies over the top, the sound raw and urgent, a bit frenetic, dizzying and psychedelic and a little bit noisy too, but also atmospheric and cinematic, definitely reminding us a little of the current crop of retro-futurist synthscapers. The rest of the record, at first blush, could hardly compare, sounding more like a straight ahead garage rock. But a strange thing happened - the more we listened, it was like all the sci-fi synthy weirdness and electro-noisiness of that title track seeped into all of the others, revealing the record as something so much more, an awesomely psychedelic melange of crunchy garage punk, seventies new wave power pop, and brooding cold wave gloom pop, with some of the songs all jangly and fuzzy and garage-y, while others are more weirdly robotic and futuristic, although even the poppier jams are peppered with rad theremin like squiggly melodies and thick buzzing synths, all tangled up with super hooky classic fuzzy punky garage pop, giving them a cool retro-future-pop vibe, and making them a bit more dark and tense than your typical garage rock. Elsewhere the band craft some seriously perfect power pop, sounding like some lost Yellow Pills style B-side from the seventies, all kinetic and crunchy, big chiming jangly chords, super melodic basslines and kick ass propulsive drumming, but the strangely new wave-y vocals once again change the feel just enough to make it sound totally original (or at least as original as something so beholden to sounds past can be).
Imagine Thee Oh Sees via Gary Numan, or the Ramones if they were on Captured Tracks, or maybe even Bare Wires covering Snowy Red... this is fast becoming a new favorite.
MPEG Stream: "Meltdown"
MPEG Stream: "Skull Eyed"
MPEG Stream: "Join Us Now"
MPEG Stream: "Wait For Us"
MPEG Stream: "Beat"

MINDERS, THE Down In The Fall (Spin Art) cd 9.98
Wow. A quite wonderful surprise from The Minders, the two gal / one guy trio hailing from Portland, Oregon. 5 songs (plus 2 video tracks), each an individually perfect piece of classic British-Invasion-style pop a la the Kinks. Past affiliated with the underground pop collective Elephant 6 and having released one-off comp tracks and singles, and one full length, for a variety of labels, The Minders are obsessed with the past yet their music sounds totally fresh and unpretentious. From the Kinks-like opener "Young and With It" to the doleful piano-led "Time Machines", which sounds like the soundtrack to a 'twenties silent film, this is real honest to god beautifully written music you can sink your teeth into that doesn't copy the past so much as it is inspired by it. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Young and With It"

MINDERS, THE Golden Street (Spin Art) cd 16.98
Of all the pop bands that've been coming more and more to people's attention in the past few years, bands that specialize in reinterpreting the proudly pop roots planted by the Beatles, Kinks, Beach Boys, etc., Portland's The Minders are, in my humble opinion, head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Like the Olivia Tremor Control and Apples in Stereo, The Minders' version of toothy pop is so well-executed that what in lesser hands might get dismissed as retro pretentiousness instead seems really fresh. With female and male vocals, careful, exact instrumentation, and hooks galore, this particular Minders record reminds us of all the bands mentioned above, plus the Velvets, Big Star, and at times even T-Rex. Nice.
RealAudio clip: "Hand on Heart"
RealAudio clip: "Right as Rain"

MINDERS, THE Hooray for Tuesday (Spin Art / Elephant6) cd 12.98
Sweet, strong pop very reminiscent of the Kinks and the Beatles on the wondrous Elephant 6 label, home of Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel.

MINDERS, THE Hooray for Tuesday (Little Army/Elephant6) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sweet, strong pop very reminiscent of the Kinks and the Beatles on the wondrous Elephant 6 label, home of Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel.

MINDFLAYER Expedition To The Hairier Peaks (Corleone) cd 11.98
3rd album (right?) from this band of Rhode Island noise dance nutters... really great, like their others, and dig that D&D module referencing/punning title!!

MINDFLAYER It's Always 1999 (Load) cd 13.98
First an album on Bulb (last year's Take Your Skin Off), now an album on Load? Must be some trash-fi, heavy-duty freakishness... Indeed it is: it's Mindflayer, those squidheaded noisniks from Rhode Island who just wanna party! Party like it's you-know-when. The electro-noise-dance duo of Mr. Brinkmann (Mr. Brinkmann, natch) and Mr. Chippendale (Lightning Bolt) are back with another bunch of zappity zap zap for your overstimulated earholes, all pounding tin can drums, cheapass electronics, and distorted distortion distorting. Approach with caution, partygoers.
MPEG Stream: "Rgamnimals"
MPEG Stream: "5 Minutes Of Sporadic Beats"

MINDFLAYER Take Your Skin Off (Bulb) cd 14.98
Uh oh. A Bulb release. That usually equals aggravating, though sometimes inspired, silly arty noise stuff. And that's what this is. Rhode Island's Mindflayer is named after a particularily fearsome D&D monster -- which of course earns 'em points with Allan, as long as they live up to the name, which they do! Band members Time (drums, vocals) and Space (synth, backup vocals) are pseudonyms for folks better known, respectively, as Brian Chippendale (drummer extraordinaire for the amazing Lightning Bolt), and Mr. Brinkmann (of Forcefield and, uh, Mr. Brinkmann fame).
In Mindflayer these two don squid heads (at least on the cover) and get down to some feedback-filled, uber noisy dancefloor terrorism, asking the musical question, "Are You Fucked Up?" (track six). Pounding rhythmic battery, distorted electronics and vocals...it's like a malevolent, metallic Christine 23 Onna, or early Quintron maybe. Imagine listening in on a desperate, low fi 911 phone call from a defective synthesizer held hostage by drugged out industrial rock hippies...
Yep, yet another indulgent Bulb release, but a good one -- so watch out, earholes.
MPEG Stream: "Head Of State On A Plate"
MPEG Stream: "Drop Bass Not Bombs"

MINDFLAYER / DEEP JEW split (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MINEKAWA, TAKAKO Cloudy Cloud Calculator (March) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sweet lo-fi electro pop for casio from this Japanese woman who put on one hell of a good instore here at Aquarius!

MINEKAWA, TAKAKO Fun 9 (Emperor Norton) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Following up her recent "Ximer" remix disc, Japanese electronic-pop songstress Minekawa presents a "fun" new full-length.

MINEKAWA, TAKAKO Maxion (Emperor Norton) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
With every new record casiopop auteur Takako Minekawa gets miles better, her sampling and arranging techniques more sophisticated and varied. She's so clever to balance her sweetness with smarts! As this 7-song cd begins we wonder if Takako has hijacked "Peter Gunn", but soon we are soothed by the return to the light, dreamy electronic pop she is more known for. Still in full possession of sweet-sweet, breathy child vocals, playful samples and pretty melodies, she adds doses of solemnity and darkness to make for possibly her best record yet. With a guest sitar appearance by Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius).
RealAudio clip: "Brioche"
RealAudio clip: "Picnic at Loose Rock"

MINEKAWA, TAKAKO Recubed EP (Emperor Norton) cdep 9.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While Takako has been described as the female Cornelius, her sound is much more simple, clean, and not nearly as sample-reliant. However, this stellar EP finds her getting the remix treatment from Buffalo Daughter (who manage to make that ubiquitous Liquid Liquid sample sound fresh again), Land of the Loops, Trans Am, Pulsars, Portastatic (Mac of Superchunk), and Sukia. Takako's sweet voice holds the whole thing together beautifully. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.